South Korea Rate Decision On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Korea will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The BoK is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 2.50 percent.

South Korea also will see December data for imports, exports and trade balance. In November, imports were up 4.6 percent on year and exports rose an annual 13.4 percent for a trade surplus of $12.18 billion.

Japan will release December figures for producer prices, with forecast suggesting an increase of 0.1 percent on month and 2.4 percent on year. That's down from 0.3 percent on month and 2.7 percent on year in November.